Central Asia: Developing the Region in the Vortex of the Geopolitical and Geoeconomic Antagonisms of the World Powers

This article focuses attention on key factors that have turned Central Asia into a region where the strategic interests of Russia, China, and the United States intersect. It illuminates perceptions that have led the Russians and the Chinese to coalesce against the establishment of American bases in the area and the United States to formulate the countervailing concept of Greater Central Asia, which would allow the states of the region to integrate after excluding the Russians and the Chinese from the new regional organization. Genuine integration, the article argues, will allow Central Asia to become as powerful geopolitically as it is geoeconomically.